Archive for January, 2013

Preventative War Has Become The Rule
Belgian MP Laurent Louis stands against war in Mali and exposes the international neo-colonial plot

“Preventative war has become the rule. And today in then name of democracy and the fight against terrorism, our states grant themselves the right to violate the sovereignty of independent countries and to overthrow legitimate leaders”

Video

On January the 17th, Belgian MP Laurent Louis, explained why he voted against the Belgian support for war in Mali. He expressed his disgust and wrath against the criminal foreign policies of the Belgian elite and its submission to foreign financial and interests groups.

A banner posted to the fence at the disputed CVS building that was squatted/occupied last year as a campaign of resisting corporate development; at the corner of Weaver St. and Greensboro St in Carrboro, NC on Sunday January 27th.This banner was posted the day after a local eco-prisoner letter writing night in celebration of Marie Mason’s birthday.

From her support page:

“January 26, 2012, is Marie Mason’s 51st birthday, which she is celebrating locked in a special control unit in the federal prison in Carswell, Texas. Marie is three years into her almost twenty-two year sentence.

A banner posted to the fence at the disputed CVS building that was squatted/occupied last year as a campaign of resisting corporate development; at the corner of Weaver St. and Greensboro St in Carrboro, NC on Sunday January 27th.This banner was posted the day after a local eco-prisoner letter writing night in celebration of Marie Mason’s birthday.

From her support page:

“January 26, 2012, is Marie Mason’s 51st birthday, which she is celebrating locked in a special control unit in the federal prison in Carswell, Texas. Marie is three years into her almost twenty-two year sentence.

Following a December call-out, events for Marie’s birthday have been held in countries around the world. They include Wellington, New Zealand; Haifa, Israel; Nijmegen, Netherlands; Vancouver, Canada; and Oakland, Baltimore, Chapel Hill, Bloomington, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, and Troy, New York in the United States. Supporters have sent birthday cards, held yoga classes, had afternoon tea, shown movies, and had cake to celebrate with her and let her know that she is neither alone nor forgotten.

If you were not able to attend one of these events, please send her a card and brighten her day. She loves to get mail from supporters, although she is limited in how many people she can write back. Please include a return address on the envelope, do not affix anything such as glitter or glue to your letters or cards, and be aware that letters which are not entirely in English may be significantly delayed in reaching her.

If community is a foundation of Jewish life, what does Judaism have to say about solitary confinement, the forcible separation of a person from the community?A few months ago I began an internship with Solitary Watch, an investigative news organization dedicated to reporting on solitary confinement.Once I got started, I became interested in learning more about the work the American Jewish community organizes around this issue.

It turns out there is a lot of work being done, though it started quite recently. Beginning in 2012, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights (recently renamed from Rabbis for Human Rights-North America), a coalition of 1,800 rabbis, and Uri L’Tzedek, a prominent liberal Modern Orthodox social justice organization, have both made the issue of solitary confinement a prominent part of their advocacy efforts.

Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment where individuals are subjected to approximately 22-24 hours per day of isolated lockdown in tiny cells. Many Americans mistakenly believe that solitary confinement is used sparingly, only for the most dangerous or threatening prisoners. However, according the American Civil Liberties Union, there are more than 80,000 men, women and children currently in some sort of solitary confinement in United States prisons. Many have a mental illness or cognitive disability, and the majority has been placed there for nonviolent violations of prison rules.

The costs of solitary confinement are much higher than housing inmates in the general prison population. Mississippi recently reduced the number of prisoners it holds in solitary from 1,000 to about 150, and closed down their high-security Supermax unit. According to the ACLU, the reforms are saving Mississippi’s taxpayers approximately $8 million per year.

That economic perspective on solitary confinement is important, but there is a moral perspective to consider as well – and that is where the religious community can add a unique voice to the national conversation.

“We’re looking to provide some moral weight to the solitary confinement conversation by applying Jewish values,” said Shlomo Bolts, a prison consultant from Uri L’Tzedek.

“Sympathy for prisoners is not the most common sentiment amongst the American public. People do not want to be seen as weak or soft on crime,” said Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, director of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. “In the Torah however, it clearly says that if someone asks for forgiveness three times and you don’t forgive them, then the onus is on you. In Judaism we believe in repentance and that punishments don’t go on forever.”

While Uri L’Tzedek and T’ruah approach the issue of solitary confinement from a distinctly Jewish perspective, the scope of both groups’ work on the issue extends well beyond the Jewish community.

“We don’t want to make this a Jewish issue. We want to make it an American issue. As Americans we’re allowing for it to happen, we’re paying for it with our tax dollars,” said Kahn-Troster.

“We want to apply the Jewish values we learn to help all people,” said Bolts.

The two groups are part of a growing movement against solitary confinement. A feeling that the status quo is simply untenable is circulating in religious communities and among the politically engaged in general; change, while it may not be imminent, feels inevitable.

“This is an exciting time. We really do see ourselves as being a force to help pass legislation to abolish or reduce solitary confinement,” said Bolts.

In June, Senator Dick Durban (D-IL) led a congressional hearing on solitary confinement, the first in American history. The hearing focused on the human rights issues associated with isolation, the economic implications of solitary confinement and the psychological impact on inmates during and after their imprisonment.

Both T’ruah and Uri L’Tzedek contributed written testimony to the hearings. They also participated in the National Day of Fasting, an interfaith effort to raise awareness of the significance of the congressional hearing.

“Fasting serves as a way to repent and bear witness. For me to be at the congressional hearing, sitting with a group of religious leaders fasting was a very powerful experience,” said Rabbi Kahn-Troster.

Fasting also serves as an act of solidarity with prisoners in solitary confinement, for whom hunger strikes are often the only available form of protest.

“I think about the hunger strikers at Pelican Bay [a California Supermax facility]. They get poor food, and then they refuse to eat it in order to draw attention to their situation. When I fasted it really hit home what these people must be going through,” said Rabbi Kahn-Troster.

T’ruah and Uri L’Tzedek are also working with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Founded in 2006 and comprised of more than 300 religious organizations, the campaign organizes protests against different forms of torture employed by the U.S., including those used at sites like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Turning her organization’s focus toward solitary confinement now “seems like a natural outgrowth of our torture work,” said Rabbi Kahn-Troster.

Uri L’Tzedek and T’ruah now face the task of motivating American Jews to get more involved with the issue. Despite a history of involvement in a wide variety of social justice causes, the American Jewish community has generally avoided issues of prison reform.

“There is this misconception that Jews are somehow not incarcerated, yet Jews go to prison for the same reasons as everyone else,” said Chaplain Gary Friedman, chairman of Jewish Prisoner Services International, an organization that provides advocacy and spiritual services to Jewish prisoners and their families. Friedman estimates there are approximately 12,000-15,000 Jews in American prisons today, including some in solitary confinement.

Uri L’Tzedek’s approach to raising awareness is a mix of traditional advocacy combined with social science research led by the Tag Institute, a British-based think tank driven by Jewish social values. Among other things, Tag’s research seeks to generate quantitative survey data on the Jewish community’s perceptions of prisons and punitive punishment –and to find the most effective ways of organizing Jewish communities to advocate for humane alternatives to solitary confinement.

Meanwhile, T’ruah is mobilizing its network of 1,800 rabbis to raise the consciousness of members of their respective communities on the issue – and hopefully to inspire some activism about solitary confinement within their communities

As solitary confinement becomes an increasingly mainstream human rights issue, the work of the Jewish community is likely to grow and inspire further activism.

As it says in the Talmud (Ta’anit 23a), “Either companionship or death.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — State Police say a North Central Regional Jail inmate has died of severe head injuries, and an investigation is under way.

Sgt. Michael Baylous says 19-year-old Jeron Hawkins of Dunbar underwent organ donation surgery Wednesday after succumbing to injuries suffered during a fight with a federal prisoner held at the same facility.

That inmate is being held in the jail under contract with the U.S. Marshals Service. The state has had an agreement to temporarily house federal prisoners for about a decade.

Baylous said Thursday the findings of the State Police investigation will be turned over to the Doddridge County prosecutor’s office.

Hawkins had been convicted of first-degree murder last fall in a 2011 shooting outside a nightclub in Morgantown.

Most Killed their Children, Husbands

It is indeed rare for a woman to be given the death sentence in the United States. Of the 3,487 persons on death row in the U.S. as of June 2004, only 49 of them, or 1.3 percent, were women.

Of the 49 women who were on death row in 2004, 55 percent (27) of them were convicted of killing their children, their husbands and/or boyfriends or both, according to Victor L. Streib’s research in “Death Penalty For Female Offenders, January 1, 1973 through June 30, 2004.” Seven of those 27 women who killed family members killed more than one victim.

Few Women on Death Row

There are approximately 50,000 women in prisons in the United States, only 0.1 percent of them are on death row. In comparison to men, death…

Texas woman to die next week loses clemency bid

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has unanimously refused a clemency request from a Dallas County woman set to die next week for the slaying and robbery of a retired 71-year-old college psychology professor at her home.

Attorneys for Kimberly McCarthy had sought a 120-day reprieve from her scheduled Tuesday execution and that her sentence be commuted to life in prison.

The seven-member board Friday turned her down.

The 51-year-old McCarthy faces lethal injection in Huntsville for the 1997 stabbing and beating death of Dorothy Booth. Booth was a neighbor in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Evidence showed McCarthy called her to borrow a cup of sugar…